Wrath of Ashardalon (D&D Board Game)

December 28th, 2012, 01:50

Wrath of Ashardalon! Simplified don't mean easy ha ha

Played this with my kids today for about 3.5 hours. The Encounter cards really took a toll! Impressive game balance on the side of challenging. I really like the game system and my 8 year old grasps it fine. My 12 year old catches my mistakes I really like the fact that the game comes with 8 adventures and even a solo starter scenario. After playing the second to easiest adventure (no grim or horror chambers, no Achardalon) I'm going to say killing Ashardalon must be a daunting task indeed. Sadly *my* character had to use one of the community healing surges Board game or not this isn't easy! The "bad" stuff that happens is pretty funny though.

The 4e tie in makes it very comfy albeit quite stripped of complexity. Nothing to write down either. Everything is on cards / tokens. We play that as well so this was an easy adjustment. Cool stuff… recommended. I also have Legend of Drizzt. Haven't tried that one but its the same system.

I got the Ravenloft one, guess from the same company, very cool.
If you're into board games (or if this opened your mind that there are more complex board games than Monopoly), I recommend you watch the tabletop video series at youtube, it's videos of playthroughs of different board games by Wil Weaton (Wesley from Star Trek Next Generation). Very funny and illustrative. Someone made a list of the videos here http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4F80C7D2DC8D9B6C (Note: they're not in chronological order in that list)

Party destroyed due to Encounter Cards this morning. Those things are brutal, far more destructive than the monsters. I'm going to have to do a house rule for the next game: The normal rules require the card for non-exploratory turns which I estimate to be around 80% of all turns. Waaaaaaay to much. Those cards are far to overwhelming to pull on every non-exploratory turn.

A tile with a black mark is a mandatory encounter card per the normal rules. All non-exploratory turns will now roll a 10 or better to avoid a random (and always bad it seems) encounter.

That should dilute the encounters around 60% overall. Seem reasonable? I can always raise the DC to 12 if it is too easy. I doubt it though!